California mite becomes fastest land animal

Arachnid outruns cheetah in terms of body lengths per second

SPEEDY LEGS The California miteParatarsotomus macropalpis can outpace Usain Bolt and even a cheetah in terms of body lengths per second.

Courtesy of J.C. Wright

A sesame seed–sized mite from California can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, and it is definitely not more powerful than a locomotive. But it is quick. New videos have captured the Paratarsotomus macropalpis mite skittering along at almost 30 centimeters per second. P. macropalpis moves 322 body lengths per second and is now by far the fastest land animal in terms of speed for its size. A human running that many body lengths per second could cover about 2,317 kilometers, or 1,440 miles, per hour. For comparison, Usain Bolt, among the fastest humans in the world, runs 45 kilometers per hour (28 miles per hour) at full speed, and only for short sprints. The cheetah retains its title for fastest animal land speed overall, but for relative speed the animal that comes closest to the mite is the Australian tiger beetle, the previous record holder.

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